Chapter 12 - THE LETTER
Lucas did not open Evelyn’s letter that night.
He sat in the emergency room with Hannah instead.
The moment she heard the back door open, her body had started shaking so badly she could barely hold Sophie.
A nurse called it an acute trauma response.
Hannah called it exhaustion from being afraid in her own home.
The next morning, Priya opened the envelope in her office with Lucas’s permission.
The letter was six pages long.
Evelyn wrote that Hannah had “stolen” Lucas.
That marriage had made him weak.
That Sophie was “the last true Mercer” and could not be raised under Hannah’s influence.
Then came the paragraph that made Lucas put the letter down.
Your father made the mistake of trusting outsiders. I will not let you repeat it. Once Sophie is secure, you will have time to remember who you are.
Hannah sat across from him.
“Secure,” she repeated. “She means away from me.”
Priya kept reading.
The letter also referenced a storage unit.
Unit 214, North Valley Self Storage.
Police obtained access that afternoon.
Inside were boxes of financial records, photocopies of Lucas and Hannah’s personal documents, spare house keys, old family files, and printed photographs of Sophie taken from social media.
There were also two binders.
Binder One was labeled Hannah.
Binder Two was labeled Lucas.
Lucas opened his.
Inside were years of notes about his relationships, jobs, medications, arguments, and travel.
His mother had been documenting him long before he met Hannah.
At the back was a handwritten list titled Pressure Points.
Guilt.
Father’s memory.
Money.
Fear of being a bad son.
Lucas stared at the words until they blurred.
Hannah reached across the table.
“She’s been managing you too.”
Lucas nodded slowly.
Then Officer Reyes opened Hannah’s binder.
Taped inside the back cover was a small flash drive.
On the drive were dozens of audio files.
May you like
The first one was dated six months before Sophie was born.
Long before anyone could blame postpartum depression.
